Alcatraz is a powerful reminder of prison life

ALCATRAZ ISLAND, Calif. - With its fat seagulls, blinding sunshine and spectacular views, it's hard to imagine that Alcatraz Island was once home to one of the world's most infamous prisons.

Located 114 miles off the San Francisco shoreline, the picturesque setting seems better suited to a vacation spot than the maximum-security penitentiary known as The Rock that once housed hardened criminals such as Al Capone.

Today, the National Park Service operates Alcatraz as a tourist attraction, which draws about 1.4 million visitors a year, a fourth of them from foreign countries. Visitors can take a short ferry ride across San Francisco Bay and walk through the old prison cells, the lunchroom, other prison facilities and the military installations that predated the prison.

An excellent audiotape guide, as well as lectures by National Park Service rangers, helps bring to life what Alcatraz must have been like. Former inmates and guards discuss their typical routines, as well as their own specific memories.

If you go to Alcatraz, buy your tickets days in advance and plan on coming early in the day. Ferries leave about every 30 minutes from San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf through midafternoon, and it is not unusual for them to sell out. It's also advisable to come in the morning, since the island gets crowded very quickly.

Tickets, which run up to $13.25 for adults, are available online and by phone through the Blue & Gold Fleet, the ferry contracted by the National Park Service to provide Alcatraz service.

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